“Doxology” was written by Thomas Ken, a seventeenth-century English chaplain who later became Bishop of Bath and Wells. He composed its four lines as a closing stanza for hymns he gave his students, and those lines have outlived everything else he wrote.

Read the full hymn history on the blog.

Everyone knows the Doxology. Four lines, sung in about 30 seconds, usually as a benediction or offertory response. But here’s what most worship leaders don’t know: Thomas Ken never intended those four lines to stand alone. They were the closing stanza of his longer devotional hymns written around 1674 for the students at Winchester College (back when writing new lyrics for church was considered blasphemous, believe it or not!)

So I went back to Ken’s original Morning Hymn, picked my favorite lines, modernized them a bit, added a few of my own, and created two brand new stanzas. The result: the one-verse Doxology is now a full-fledged, 3 verse worship song. It’s a perfect call to worship.

Start your worship set with Doxology and follow it with an uptempo song of praise. Suggestions:

Praise (Elevation Worship): The most natural pairing imaginable. Doxology commands “Praise Him, all creatures here below,” and Praise answers with everything that has breath praising the Lord.

House of the Lord (Phil Wickham): Doxology gathers the church to praise God for His blessings; House of the Lord celebrates the joy of doing exactly that, together, in His house.

Graves Into Gardens (Elevation Worship): “From whom all blessings flow” is the theme, and Graves Into Gardens shows what those blessings actually look like: transformation, redemption, resurrection power.

Just Want Verse 1?

No problem. If you’d rather use only the original, familiar verse, tag it: repeat “Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost” using the same tag sequence starting at measure 24.

And even if you don’t use my arrangement, feel free to use my new stanzas with your own version of Doxology. Ken’s forgotten words deserve to be sung again!